disabled bays.. do they 'belong' to anyone?

[Otta]

Haven't read all the responses, but it has always been that even if you apply for a disabled bay outside of your property, anyone with a blue badge is entitled to use it. It's public highway and you can't own a piece of it. If someone has a blue badge, then they have met eligibility criteria, and are entitled to use any bay.

Yes you would hope that people wouldn't be inconsiderate and use one at times when they knew it was needed by a resident that lives there, but that resident has no right to claim it as their own.

[uncleglen]

There is a disabled bay near me and the people who applied for it never park in it- in fact it is empty all the time that I have observed but they park their vehicles near the bay. This puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on the surrounding residents since many of the houses have been converted into 2 flats- seems weird to me

[oneearth121]

Blue Badge Abuse you go to any shopping center even super stores and you will see the abuse of the blue badge people even parking in disabled bays without a blue badge.even forged blue badges are a big problem. southwark council should mark the disable bay out side a disable persons house like westminister and Chelsea councils do and make sure the disable resident renew it every year.

[Pugwash]

Quote

With all due respect Pugwash, and I accept that this was a pain for you, it sounds like you wanted a disabled bay set aside for your mother in what was obviously a crowded street so that you would have somewhere to park for a few minutes once a week? Not sure that would be a great use of the system

No I did not want a disabled bay for my Mum, just pointing out that had there been a 'empty' disabled bay near her flat, I would have used it for the few minutes I required to get her in and out of the car. Frequently once I had returned her home, I parked where ever I could (frequently 10 mins walk away from her flat) so that I could spend time with her.

When she died, I returned her Blue Badge to Lewisham Social Services who were very surprised at my action as many relatives keep the badge for themselves to abuse the system.

Sainsbury's in Bell Green did a trawl of their disabled bays and put a parking ticket on those cars in the bays without a Blue Badge.

2 doors down from me there is a disabled bay and this was applied for by the Housing Association which owned the property. At the time there were no tenants in the property owning a Blue Badge and they were equally surprised why they had this bay outside the house. Turned out that the cleaner employed by the HA got fed up trawling up and down the road with her hoover, that the HA requested the bay to enable her to visit weekly to do cleaning. This was several years ago, the bay is still there and local church goers use the bay .

[rendelharris]

@pugwash: "No I did not want a disabled bay for my Mum" - sorry I must have been misled by the phrase "I tried to get a disabled bay for my mother" in your original message.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

Rendel - Pugwash didn't say that (s)he wanted the disabled bay "set aside" for them.

[rendelharris]

But that's what it effectively would be - if there was anyone else in the street who needed a bay they would presumably have asked for one, and had they used it then the whole point of having it for his/her mother's shopping trips would be obviated. I was just making the point that we can't ask for bays to be put in for a once-per-week occurrence, we take an elderly friend out once a fortnight and he is entitled to a blue badge, but we wouldn't ask for a bay to be put in to save inconvenience once a fortnight.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

That would only make sense if bays were exclusive to a property. As discussed above, that doesn't appear to be the case.

[rendelharris]

...which makes it all the more pointless to ask for one for a once a week shopping trip, as sod's law would dictate someone else would be occupying it the one time it was needed.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

Not really - at least if one was there, there would be a slightly increased chance that it would be available, given the amount of blue badge holders versus ordinary drivers. Not sure that it's really our call to judge whether it would be pointless either, in view of the fact we're not affected directly by it.

[rendelharris]

Well, I fully support blue badge spaces for all who need them - indeed my sister is a blue badge holder due to MS - but of course all residents are affected if disabled bays are put in their street as it reduces the number of available parking spaces. I was merely suggesting that a disabled bay which was only needed for a few minutes each week (and in which presumably most of the time other BB holders wouldn't park, as if there were residents who needed one they would have already requested one) wouldn't be the best use of the system.

[Pugwash]

I think this has been blown out of all proportion. I/Mum would not have qualified for a disabled parking bay on the grounds that the car owner did not live at the same address. My mother was also on dialysis and the ambulance collected her 3 times a week to take her to Guys for this- if there was an 'empty' disabled bay ( there was one in the street further down) they would park in that otherwise they had to double park on a busy side street, This bay was about 100 yards from the flat and when I visited at weekends was always occupied. There is no way I would have expected a disabled bay for Mum - I see much abuse of blue badges and it annoys me very much.

[rendelharris]

Misinterpretation on my part Pugwash I think - when you said "I tried to get a disabled bay for my mother" I took that to mean you'd applied for one, not that you tried to use one on the street. I agree that too many people are abusing the system - particularly to hold parking spaces for other able-bodied relatives.

One note of caution (not for you, for the good folks on here generally) - what might appear to be "abuse" sometimes needs more knowledge of the circumstances; my little sister who, as mentioned above, has quite severe multiple sclerosis, sometimes gets abuse for parking in the disabled bays (with her blue badge) at Sainsbury's because when she gets out of the car she appears to have nothing more than a slight limp. People don't realise that after a tour round the supermarket the stress on the system means she can't get back to the car without using the trolley as a walking aid and taking it very slowly.

Peace,

Rendel

[Loz]

My parents had a blue badge for my Dad, who could barely walk and was mostly pushed around in a wheelchair. Once, when out shopping, we'd gone from one side of the shopping centre to the other. So, to save pushing Dad all the way back around again, I nipped out and moved the car around to the other side to pick him up. So, I pulled into the disabled bay just outside the entrance, jumped out the car and jogged in to pick M&D up.

Halfway through the door, I suddenly considered that anyone who just watched able-bodied me run in through the door probably hated my guts at that very moment. Incorrectly, as it happens, but I understood what it must have looked like.